Train Heartnet
Train Heartnet (トレイン ハートネット Torein Hātonetto) is the main protagonist of the manga and anime, Black Cat. Once an Eraser for Chronos, he eventually turns to the life of a sweeper and starts working alongside Sven Vollfied. In Chronos, he was a part of the Chronos Numbers as Number XIII, and was known widely as the "Black Cat". Appearance Train is a young man with an average height, short brown hair, striking gold, cat-like eyes, and possesses his trademark XIII tattoo on his left collar-bone. His outfits change frequently during the manga as opposed to rarely changing in the anime after having departed from Chronos. During his time as an eraser for Chronos, he wears a long, black trench coat over a black dress shirt and black pants. As a sweeper, he wears a white v-neck t-shirt (that shows off his XIII tattoo) under a blue cropped jacket with four doughnut-resembling objects over his front. In the anime, Train says they are food rations, but according to the mangaka, they are wooden with metal built in to protect his vital points; thus his anime line was likely a joke. His gun's holster is held on with two brown straps and worn over dark blue pants with black shoes. He also wears a red collar with a bell in reference to his cat-like personality. During the Zero Numbers arc, Train switched to a black leather jacket with similar blue versions of the doughnut shapes on it, paired with black riding gloves. Personality Train's underground name is "Black Cat" because of the misfortune that lies in his wake. He always says to his target "I've come to deliver some bad luck" before killing them and he always completes a mission with 100% accuracy, without remorse. This is a side that Creed, a comrade of lower ranking, admires. Train's demeanor is very cool, bordering nonchalant and almost detached until he met a girl, Saya, who was a bounty hunter that lived life as she wanted to. He then began to reveal a much warmer and more human side of himself, which Creed despised Saya for. After giving up his life as an eraser working for Chronos, Train becomes a Sweeper (bounty hunter) and his personality changes drastically as he takes on a more lighthearted approach to life. There have been many scenes where Train is displayed carefree and even somewhat foolish. He often gets into fights with Sven (these fights involve Train letting another bounty slip through, his bottomless appetite, being way too silly, etc.) Following Saya's way of life, he refuses to kill, and seems to take enjoyment in annoying his enemies. He is not one to "look before he leaps" and his antics usually lead to accumulating debt that he and his partner Sven have collected from property damage. At times he is solemn, usually from regret that he was unable to help someone and other times, carefree and exuberant. There are times when Train will revert to his earlier personality when tempted (often through extreme anger). History Memories of his past as a child, in regards to the death of his biological mother and father recur within brief flashbacks and serves as the catalyst for his seemingly indifferent exterior and seamless interior. The mysterious and skilled man who is later found to be Zagine Axeloake, is the one that raised Train to be the skilled gunman he is, also becomes part of a reminiscently bitter past, the realization of the cause of his own father and mother's deaths more than enough to push the young boy to the edge. He had grown to respect this teacher; this mentor of his who taught Train how to use a gun in the first place, exposing him to the a world of vigorous training, and also responsible for the Black Cat's notorious love for milk. His mentor is the one who told him that the drink will make his bones stronger. Thus, Train would be stronger. In the manga, Zagine trained and took care of Train for four months after killing Train parents until Train find him bleeding to death in an alley. sometimes within the same year Train is found by a man named Carl Walken who had a management position in Chronos. He took care of Train for 3 to 4 years. Carl is most likely responsible for Train becoming a member of Chronos. Plot Manga Summary At the beginning of the manga, unlike at the beginning of the anime, Train has been working as a Sweeper for more than two years with Sven. Train's story line is generally the same: Rinslet asking Train and Sven for help but Train nearly kills Torneo before he leaves. Along the way, the two stumbled upon Eve, where she was still being trained to be an ultimate nano machined monster. After saving her from the clutches of Torneo Rudman, she decided to go with them. She appears to love Sven over Train after she and Train become rivals. Their rivalry begins because Train competes with her so Eve can further accentuate her abilities, even though Train doesn't take the rivalry that seriously. The events in the manga follow that of in the anime similarly, although the manga version of Train had learned that killing Creed will not bring Saya back, that revenge is pointless whereas his anime counterpart is fully set on killing Creed as payback for Saya's death. However, Railgun seems to only be featured in the manga. Anime Summary In the opening episode, he is seen on a mission assigned from Chronos. Train Heartnet is considered one of the more formidable Numbers throughout the anime. Train is tasked by Chronos to kill the genetically altered weapon, Eve. However, he fails to pull the trigger, and retreats when her guards arrive. Later, he is assigned for the same duty, and though he receives the opportunity, he doesn't kill her. This is because of Saya, a woman he had met just a night before, who opened Train up and taught him that there was more to life than killing. Train joins Sven and Eve on their sweepers missions, until he finds out Creed is not only still alive, but he has founded the Apostles of the Star. Sven and Rinslet are kidnapped by the Apostles, and Train faces Creed, but at the last minute decides to save his friends instead of taking revenge for Saya's death. Sven, attempting to hide Creed's bounty for 3 billion dollars, knowing that it would only increase Train's desire to face Creed again, goes to meet the Sweeper's Alliance. When Train finally meets the group, he notices that their leader, Glin, is actually a Chronos number. The two have a short fight, ending with them going to Kraken Island to find the Apostles. In the battle, Train faces Creed, who is seemingly immortal thanks to the nanomachines in his body. However, being that his imagine blade has now fused with his body, Train thinks to destroy the sword so that he wouldn't have to kill Creed, knowing that that was not what Saya would have wanted, and that Creed is not worth him turning back into a killer. The plan works and Eve manages to extract the rest of his nanomachines. Train also takes part in the anime-only arc that involves Eve and the syndicate after her, known only as the Zero Numbers. Equipment and Abilities Train has shown remarkable speed and agility when running, as well as being able to run through an entire crowd to get to his target without their notice. Train has also shown that he can wield his gun like a melee weapon and hit people to avoid shooting them after becoming a Sweeper. Marksmanship: Train wields Hades, an ornate 6 shot black revolver made out of Orichalcum with an XIII engraved into its side and a lanyard (which could be from Saya's gun). It weighs 2.5 kg. He is an extremely skilled marksman, able to accurately shoot down bullets from other guns, and make a number of bullets hit at exactly the same time as well as ricochet bullets off of multiple surfaces and effectively hit a target. He is also ambidextrous. Black Claw (written in kanji as 黒爪 Kurotsume, lit Black Claw/Talon): A physical attack where Train slashes with his gun in three different spots at his target in one shot. Black Cross (written in kanji as 黒十字 Kurojuuji, lit Black Cross): An evolved/alternate version of Black Claw, where Train instead slashes twice in the same spot for critical damage. The style in that he slashes resembles a cross in the form of an X. Railgun (written in kanji as 電磁銃 Denjijuu, lit Electromagnetic Gun): When his body became infected with nanomachines he manages to manipulate them to create static electricity. The orichalcum in his gun Hades can act as a catalyst for the nanomachines. This allows him to focus the electricity into the barrel of Hades, turning it into a railgun. He is able to fire three of these daily, due to the energy consumption it takes to create the electricity. Train loses this ability after using it against Creed in their final battle. Burst Railgun (written in kanji as 爆裂 電磁銃 Bakuretsu Denjijuu, lit. Exploding Electromagnetic Gun): This is Train's strongest attack. Train is also able to use Sven's specially made bullets with the Railgun, as shown when he uses the Railgun to fire a Burst Bullet. He uses this to defeat Creed. However, the combination of the cells in Train's body as well as the raw strength of the bullet is able to destroy the orichalcum barrel of Hades. Due to Train's condition at the time of finishing Creed off with this technique, the energy put into the attack also deprives him of his nanomachines, thus, he loses the usage of his Railgun ability at the end of the manga series. Relationships Sven Vollfied Train's sweeper partner and munitions expert. They are good friends an care about one another, but Sven often gets irritated by Train's reckless actions and childish behavior, and constantly beats him up. In the anime, they start as rivals in deciding Eve's future. However, after Train becomes a sweeper, they become partners and good friends. Train's bottomless appetite is also a source of annoyance for Sven, because its the primary reason their pay dwindles so fast. Eve Both characters showed deep concern for each other. Train is always concerned with Eve and gave her the nickname "princess". At first they started out as enemies. Later on, in episode 7, Eve sensed Train's blood on the burning ship. When Train woke up he treated her coldly and even calling her a killer like him. However, after learning that Eve saved him and nursed him back to health, Train went to save her. At the end of the episode, Train is shown wearing the bell Eve was attempting to make him wear earlier in the episode. In episode 8, Train started calling Eve "princess" and showed deep concern when Eve left to hunt for the outlaw. He started running fast, to which Sven noted he was concerned of her, but he denied it saying it was because of the challenge. He didn't care if he left Sven and Rinslet behind, he just proceeded to find Eve. When he was caught, Eve tried to free him but she was also caught. At the end of the episode Train was bragging to Eve that he saved her. Train also cannot turn Eve down. On an episode where Eve asked Train to taste her cooking which looked burned, he stared at Eve before giving in to her request. He later enjoyed eating what Eve cooked. Saya Minatsuki Sweeper and a good friend of Train. Saya was the one that changed Train from the cold-hearted assassin to the person he is today. Her death devastated Train and inspired him to leave Chronos and live a free life (like she did). Train stated that their relationship was platonic, and not romantic in anyway. When Eve questioned him about it, Train stated that he and Saya weren't at the right point for romance. Rinslet Walker While an ally and friend of Train, Rinslet likes to take advantage of him in order to achieve her goals, which annoys Trains to no end. Regardless the two remain on good terms. Creed Diskenth The person Trains hates the most. Because Creed killed Saya, Train harbored pure anger and a strong desire to kill him. Just the mere mention of his former partner's name is enough to revert him back to his old persona. His desire for revenge was so great that he was willing to lose a hand just to kill Creed. Yet, despite all the hatred and resentment he carried in his heart, Train refused to kill Creed because deep down, he knew that was not what Saya would have wanted, and it was not worth him returning to his old self, much to Creed's dismay. Kyoko Kirisaki Former member of the Apostles of the Star Kyoko has a huge crush on train, and as a result, follows him anywhere and everywhere which annoys Train whom does not return her feelings. (Which is not due to an age gap (which is only six years), but because she annoys him and creeps him out.) He is, however, willing to protect her from danger, so long as she does not break her promise to never kill again. In the anime, Train usually uses the mascot cat as a shield from Kyoko's kisses. Zagine Axeloake Train's mentor and the one who murdered his parents. Train's relationship with Zagine was complex: He hated the man with all his heart for killing his parents, but at the same time, respected him for being the "strongest man in the world" in his eyes. As the Black Cat, Train was similar to Zagine in many ways (Ruthless and merciless, not killing children, etc.). Karl Walken Karl raised Train after Zagine's death for 3 to 4 years, and for that, Train is grateful. They met when Train attempted to rob him; Train had been trained on gunmanship by that point, which impressed Karl enough to see Train as a potential eraser for Chronos. He also has a great amount of respect for Karl, though he did mention that the man can be frightening at times. It's not clear if Train views him as a parental figure or not. Tim Vertical Tim's anger and thirst for revenge reminded Train of his former self, which was why he went out of his way to help Tim understand that revenge was not the answer. In both anime and manga, Tim's story made Train relive his past vividly. Trivia *When Kentaro Yabuki was coming up with Train's name, he liked the feel of the word, attributing it to evoking the image of somebody traveling from place to place on the rails. *Train is terrible at video games, especially and ironically shooting games. *The bell he wears actually belonged to a stuffed animal black cat that Saya won for some kids at the festival. *His name contains thirteen letters, matching the tattoo on his chest. His birthday, April 13, also shares this distinction. Whether this was intentional or not is unknown. *April 13, Train's birthday, can be written as 4/13. The numbers 4 and 13 are considered numbers of bad luck (4 in Japan, 13 in the U.S.A.). *It is also possible that the number 13 is given to him, referencing the 13th Arcana, as he is commonly associated with Death early on. *Train is originally left-handed. There some superstitions that associate left-handedness with bad luck. *His zodiac sign is Aries. *In To Love-Ru, a manga written by Saki Hasemi and illustrated by Kentaro Yabuki, there is an assassin known as Kuro who bares a striking resemblance to Train, complete with a choker, black coat, a gun resembling Hades, and a name that references Train's alias, Black Cat. Kuro's back story is also similar to Train's, as he helped a person, Golden Darkness (whom strongly resembles Eve, along with her powers, and a creator named Doctor Tearju), escape from the organization that manufactured her into a bio-weapon. However, Kuro's personality is colder than Train's. *Train is 23, but has the appearance of a 16 year old, which is noted in the anime. It's implied he looks young in the manga as well, as most he comes across find it hard to believe a "kid" like him is the Black Cat unless having prior knowledge of the fact. *In the original one shot, Stray Cat, Train was a famous Sweeper who retired to become a delivery man. He was also a Tao user who could create chi bullets (Similar to Durham), and summon his gun. es:Train Heartnet Category:Characters Category:Male Characters Category:Main Characters Category:Sweepers Category:Sweeper's Alliance Category:Former Chronos Number Category:Assassins Category:Marksman Category:Orichalcum Weapon Wielder Category:Active